SportsRantz NHL Weekend Watch

Well, this is your SportsRantz guide to which games to watch this weekend in the NHL! If your TV isn’t glued to one of these games you could be missing out on some of the weekend’s best hockey! And by now you are probably saying, “Quit Ranting and Show Me the Games!” so here’s what’s good:

Friday: Vancouver at Anaheim, 10:30pm ET

A big “pent-up aggression” game for the Ducks. They’ve been awful lately and just lost to a team they hate (Nashville). To top it off, they had a closed-door meeting yesterday to air their grievances. Thankfully, they get a Vancouver team at the end of a six-games-in-12-nights road trip, fairly pleased with itself after back-to-back wins in Chicago and L.A.

Saturday: Buffalo at Boston, 7pm ET

Question: Has anybody had a better start to the year — yet received less attention — than Jason Pominville? He’s posted 6G-12A-18PTS in 14 games (on pace for 105) while assisting on seven of Thomas Vanek‘s team-leading 10 goals. Pominville also kills penalties and is pretty solid in the faceoff circle. I say he’s Buffalo’s MVP thus far. I look for this game to be a slug fest!

Saturday: Winnipeg at Columbus, 7pm ET

Major car crash potential here. Claude Noel and Scott Arniel are in precarious situations — Noel can’t stand the Jets (which is unfortunate, given he’s their coach) and Arniel has that whole Sean Penn-in-Dead Man Walking look about him. The players are in equally precarious states: Columbus has made two trades in the last three days and Winnipeg appears primed to blow it up. This game will have more nervous energy than a six-year-old on Red Bull. This game has the potential to either be a blow out, high scoring game or a very low scoring game.

We’ve already mentioned three coaches under fire so why not throw a fourth into the mix with Los Angeles’ Terry Murray? The Kings are a mess right now. They’re 3-5-2 in their last 10 and can’t score goals, this despite swinging big in the offseason by acquiring Mike Richards and Simon Gagne. Murray’s tried every trick in the book to kickstart the offense — jugging lines, demotions to the press box, activating Colin Fraser — but none have worked. GM Dean Lombardi’s shown plenty of patience, but this is year four of the Murray era. His time might be up soon. Plus, the Wild will be without Guillaume Latendresse who fell victim to a dreaded concussion.

Sunday: Edmonton at Chicago, 7pm ET

Chicago’s about to embark on the strangest stretch of its schedule (keep in mind they played Vancouver on Nov. 6). Here’s what it looks like:

It’s like a two-week crash course of Western Canadian teams. Weird. Odd. Intriguing..but none the less it will be some good hockey. Plus you never know what you are going to get with the Oilers so this looks to be a very interesting hockey game.

But enjoy a weekend full of the NHL! I know we will here at SportsRantz